UPS for home with auto shutdown

AfricanTech

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Can anyone recommend such a beast and where

Just want it to have enough juice to send the shutdown command after 5 minutes of no power so that apps can exit gracefully
 
Not sure if the USB ones allow it but i know that a RS-232 port is required to make this function work. Stand to be corrected though.

Perhaps provide some details on what devices you have connected (Model nos can help & how many hdds etc as all are important) so the forumites can tell you how big you need to go.
 
I managed it - see here
I am still using WinNUT. When the power goes off. The NAS switches off first and then a couple of minutes the PC. The router and switches will just switch off the moment the power from the UPS is depleted
 
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I managed it - see here
I am still using WinNUT. When the power goes off. The NAS switches off first and then a couple of minutes the PC. The router and switches will just switch off the moment the power from the UPS is depleted

Thanks Koning - will check it out - does WinNUT replace your UPS management software completely or do you still need it?

Anyhow, will try tomorrow - will get a cheapie from Incredible for testing purposes

@Yuu - I figure to get away with the smallest possible (ie cheap) - I just need the thing to give enough time for PC to hibernate / shutdown and not be unceremoniously dumped when the cuts come. Don't need more uptime than a few minutes.
 
Thanks Koning - will check it out - does WinNUT replace your UPS management software completely or do you still need it?

Anyhow, will try tomorrow - will get a cheapie from Incredible for testing purposes

@Yuu - I figure to get away with the smallest possible (ie cheap) - I just need the thing to give enough time for PC to hibernate / shutdown and not be unceremoniously dumped when the cuts come. Don't need more uptime than a few minutes.

Okay, great. Update this thread with your findings as i am looking for one to do a similar thing (HTPC). :).

Thank heavens OGroteKoning is around :p.
 
Right - so, first report back.

1. Cheapish UPS from IC - 700VA - R699 - check
2. Cable plug adapter to construct "FrankenCable* " - check
2. Charge overnight - check
3. Connect everything up this morning - check
3.1 Strip plug connected to UPS via FrankenCable
3.2 Rig connected to UPS via supplied cable
4. Test by switching off plug - check - everything keeps running, UPS emits distressing beeps - enough time to shut stuff down
5. WinNut installed, service running and picks up UPS via USB connector - check
5.1 Logfile Errors - and I ran out of time, got to get to work, so the quest continues tonight.

For anyone interested, Logfile errors are:

Level INFO 06/05/2013 09:14:55 Detected OS as Windows NT
Level NOTICE 06/05/2013 09:14:55 Network UPS Tools upsmon 2.0.0.4
Level WARNING 06/05/2013 09:14:55 Ignoring invalid MONITOR line in ups.conf
Level WARNING 06/05/2013 09:14:55 UPS directives now require a UPS name (MONITOR upsname@hostname ...)
Level CRITICAL 06/05/2013 09:14:55 Fatal error: insufficient power configured!
Level CRITICAL 06/05/2013 09:14:55 Sum of power values........: 0
Level CRITICAL 06/05/2013 09:14:55 Minimum value (MINSUPPLIES): 1

Now I just need to figure out what all of that means.

Updates to follow

*FrankenCable = cable that plugs into UPS usually has a kettle style connector that plugs into computer / monitor. Cut off that connector and replace with a 3-point adapter and then plug power strip into that. This way , when power goes out, router, speakers, lamp, external hard drive, and various other gubbins also get the benefit of the UPS.
 
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In the upsmon.conf file there are monitor options you have to configure.

# Network UPS Tools: example upsmon configuration
#
# This file contains passwords, so keep it secure.

############################################################################
# WinNUT Users
#===============
# I've tried to remove most of the configuration options that don't apply
# when running under windows. Other than those options, the file is the
# same as unix file. And if you have the extra options in this file, it
# shouldn't really cause any problems
#
#

# --------------------------------------------------------------------------
# MONITOR <system> <powervalue> <username> <password> ("master"|"slave")
#
# List systems you want to monitor. Not all of these may supply power
# to the system running upsmon, but if you want to watch it, it has to
# be in this section.
#
# You must have at least one of these declared.
#
# <system> is a UPS identifier in the form <upsname>@<hostname>[:<port>]
# like localhost, su700@mybox, etc.
#
# Examples:
#
# - "su700@mybox" means a UPS called "su700" on a system called "mybox"
#
# - "fenton@bigbox:5678" is a UPS called "fenton" on a system called
# "bigbox" which runs upsd on port "5678".
#
# The UPS names like "su700" and "fenton" are set in your ups.conf
# in [brackets] which identify a section for a particular driver.
#
# If the ups.conf on host "doghouse" has a section called "snoopy", the
# identifier for it would be "snoopy@doghouse".
#
# <powervalue> is an integer - the number of power supplies that this UPS
# feeds on this system. Most computers only have one power supply, so this
# is normally set to 1. You need a pretty big or special box to have any
# other value here.
#
# You can also set this to 0 for a system that doesn't supply any power,
# but you still want to monitor. Use this when you want to hear about
# changes for a given UPS without shutting down when it goes critical,
# unless <powervalue> is 0.
#
# <username> and <password> must match an entry in that system's
# upsd.users. If your username is "monmaster" and your password is
# "blah", the upsd.users would look like this:
#
# [monmaster]
# password = blah
# allowfrom = (whatever applies to this host)
# upsmon master (or slave)
#
# "master" means this system will shutdown last, allowing the slaves
# time to shutdown first.
#
# "slave" means this system shuts down immediately when power goes critical.
# WinNUT users: WinNUT should always be a slave since we're not the machine
# talking directly to the ups
#
# Examples:
#
# MONITOR myups@bigserver 1 monmaster blah master
# MONITOR [email protected] 1 upsmon secretpass slave

# --------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Can anyone recommend such a beast and where

Just want it to have enough juice to send the shutdown command after 5 minutes of no power so that apps can exit gracefully

APC ups's run PowerChute (free propriety software from APC)
 
APC ups's run PowerChute (free propriety software from APC)

This ^^ except mine is a Meissner Netstar XT 700 that uses proprietary s/w called WinPower]

I gave up on WinNUT eventually (got it to the point where it started without the previous errors but then it kept throwing a communications error) and am using the software that came in the box :o

Eish! :o - I'm really getting old - a couple of years ago I'd have been like a dog with a favourite bone and would have gnawed away at this until I got WinNUT to work.

Ah well, I have a solution that solves my original problem statement.

PS: Still have to test that it actually works - will do that tomorrow - beeps and other such associated noises not appreciated at night my house :D

PS2: Wonder how much sales the idiot at IC has lost because he doesn't know that the software in the box can do this
 
APC ups's run PowerChute (free propriety software from APC)

I would have loved to get an APC except that they don't carry stock in popular outlets and it's a darn pain to have to drive around for something like this - it's a consumer item for goodness sake.

Oh, and I'm almost sure that the website stated that the small units don't have the software management component (but I may well be wrong so take this observation with large pinch of salt)
 
Glad you are sorted!

Thanks. Glad I got the thing even without the auto shutdown - as luck would have it power tripped earlier this evening - ta da - UPS kept everything running till I threw the switches up again.

Happened over the weekend as well and BIOS didn't like very much - had to reset my settings to get booting again.
 
Funny, when I got mine, we had a power outage the next weekend. My NAS was running and my wife's PC. It's a "life saver"!
 
I would have loved to get an APC except that they don't carry stock in popular outlets and it's a darn pain to have to drive around for something like this - it's a consumer item for goodness sake.

Oh, and I'm almost sure that the website stated that the small units don't have the software management component (but I may well be wrong so take this observation with large pinch of salt)

The APC software management component is supplied with APC models that include communications.

I'm considering the following for my Proliant Micro running Windows Home Server:

http://www.sybaritic.co.za/store/product_info.php?cPath=150_151&products_id=10449
 
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